![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)
In discussions with Collin before I pulled the trigger on his '68 365, I mentioned my flurry of activity in April. He asked me to post some pictures.
I had been thinking about getting either an ES-335 or an Explorer (yes, vastly different), so set up some saved searches. This led to a somewhat 'accidental' purchase of a Custom 1959 ES-355 Historic Dot Reissue - a little nicer than I was shooting for. Musician's Friend was auctioning one as a 'scratch and dent'. Pictures on it looked absolutely fine, so I went ahead and put down a bid that I really didn't expect to come close. Whadayaknow - I won it. A little surprised, but not the least bit disappointing. Guitar is perfect except that there was a little bit of fret sprouting on a few frets and the binding is very slightly deformed on those frets. Very nice guitar.
Before I deleted the Explorer searches, a 'NOS' 2012 1968 Reissue came up, so I got that. I really don't know what Gibson was up to with a 1968 Reissue (did they actually make any in '68?, is it hypothetical?
![Rolling Eyes :roll:](./images/smilies/icon_rolleyes.gif)
I then somehow stumbled on a bit of an oddball. Part of the MIdtown series which seems to draw a lot of love/hate controversy (particularly "hate" from people who don't have them but post about how bad they are/must be and "love" from many who do have them....). This one is a MIdtown Kalamazoo and there were around 400 made for the US. Sam Ash had it listed online, again as a 'scratch and dent/demo', but you couldn't see anything wrong in the photos and could see that the protective film was still on the pickguard. Again, perfectly good, untouched guitar - better than most on display for retail. It's a little like if a Les Paul mated with an ES-335, but with a Byrdland neck (and no, the Gibson USA construction is not up to Custom Shop standards, as expected, but is by no means bad). Liked the idea of a shorter scale neck. Nice little guitar. I'm actually really impressed with the '57 Classics in this, particularly when tapped and running single-coil (and I don't particularly like '57s, in general). Pretty happy with it.
May isn't starting out too bad, either, with Collin's 365 on the way, but I think I'm going to need to throttle back a little.
![Wink :wink:](./images/smilies/icon_wink.gif)